


Your Elizabeth

by RobberBaroness



Category: Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Genre: During Canon, Epistolary, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:22:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28928004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobberBaroness/pseuds/RobberBaroness
Summary: A lost Lavenza letter.
Relationships: Henry Clerval/Elizabeth Lavenza
Comments: 5
Kudos: 7
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Your Elizabeth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [reeby10](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeby10/gifts).



My dearest Henry,

Though I have worded it over and over in my mind, putting this letter to paper is one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. I am not afraid that it will be seen by prying outside eyes- let them look if they care so deeply about the letters of one sad woman. I am afraid because the things I wish to say to you would drive me apart from my family, my friends, my whole world, and yet I wish to say them so much.

I have not forgotten your kiss by the lake. This is not a call for you to make more apologies- you have given enough as it is! I cannot forget, though I do my best to replace your face and figure with Victor’s when I recall it. I am grateful to him, I have been his bride to be- his property, I have thought in unkind moments- since I was first brought to be his companion, and he and his family have been so generous to me ever since. I know he loves me, and I thought I loved him. But no matter how hard I try, I still think of you and your touch whenever I am alone.

Looking back, I think I first fell in love with you before you and Victor went to school. I wished both of my dearest companions great happiness in their studies, and I meant all my good wishes, but I glanced back for you, hoping to still see you smiling at me even as you left. You had such a beautiful smile that day. You always have, since we were children. The light of it catches my breath, and makes me want to smile as well.

We must do something when you find Victor- either vow to end things forever between us, or else have me break the engagement simply and swiftly. Either thought breaks my heart. I was blessed by god to have you by my side for so many years, but sometimes I wish that we had never met- at least, not before I was old and married and sensible enough to have outgrown my sensibility. We who are least prepared for romance must be the ones who suffer from it!

It is intolerably lonely without you. The family is wonderful as always, and I have my books and my letters, but I am stripped of half my spirit, the gentleness of your love and the sweet poetry of your words. I am not a poet myself, as you can so clearly see from this pitiful note! But I do not feel like very much of everything now- not a patient fiancee, not a wild and free woman of wealth, not an audience for Victor’s theories of life nor scholar enough to have theories about my own life. I am lost.

If the answer is to part with dignity, then it shall be a true parting- once wed to Victor, I could never betray him so cruelly. But if you will be true to me, I think I could survive the anger and scorn of the whole Frankenstein family. By my side as my husband or locked away in my memories as my truest love, I shall always be-

Your Elizabeth


End file.
